Funding cuts to malaria control programs might be associated with almost all the documented resurgences that have occurred worldwide over the past 80 years (Cohen JM et al. Malaria J. doi: 10.1186/1475-2875-11-122 [published online April 24, 2012]).

Researchers from US centers conducted a systematic literature review to identify circumstances in which malaria returned to an area where it previously had been controlled. They categorized malaria resurgences according to whether they might have resulted from weakened malaria control programs, increased potential for malaria transmission, or technical obstacles such as insecticide resistance. They identified 75 resurgence events in 61 countries that occurred between 1930 and 2000 and found that 68 of the events were associated at least in part with weakened malaria control programs.